The present invention relates to a material transport device for a granulating apparatus, especially for granulating long strands or sheets of material, such as plastics material.
An apparatus of this type is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,586 granted on Sept. 24, 1974 and assigned to the same assignee. The apparatus of said patent as well as of the present application is intended for granulating strands or sheets of synthetic materials, elastomeric or similar materials and includes a feed-in mechanism arranged upstream of a cutting or granulating tool, as viewed in the feed advance direction of the material to be granulated. The feed-in mechanism comprises a feed-in table arranged substantially tangentially relative to a transport cylinder. A run-off table arranged downstream of the transport cylinder also extends substantially tangentially relative to the transport cylinder. The downstream end of the run-off table provides a counter ledge for the cutting tool.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,837,586, a material feed and guide channel is formed by an endless conveyor belt which extends substantially from the feed-in table to the counter ledge or edge of the run-off table. The endless conveyor belt runs over two rollers and preferably also over a tensioning roller so that the run of the belt which faces the transport cylinder conforms to the circumference of the cylinder from a feed-in point to the run-off table whereby the downstream guide roller of the conveyor belt is arranged substantially opposite the downstream end of the run-off table. In order to assure that the strands are guided as close as possible to the cutting tool, it is necessary to make the diameter of the guide roller adjacent to the cutting tool as small as possible. This is desirable for a good guidance and transport of the strands to be granulated. However, a small diameter guide roller causes, especially in connection with high feed advance speeds of the strands, a respectively fast turn around of the transport belt about an almost acute or pointed turn around point. As a result, the transport belt is exposed to substantial loads at such turn around point.